Alpha,Bravo,Tango

(Insert, Triumph in the sky theme song)

Date: 4th December 2010
Weather forecast: Slightly cloudy with temperature at 30 degree celcius 
Time: 0800
Venue: Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Subang.

At 0715, depart to airport. Receive a SMS from Alice stated that the ground crew is all set for the flight at 0800. Punctuality is very important generally for everyone as it is a good habit to have, but is one of the main criteria in being a pilot, especially a commercial airline pilot. As delay means lost of time, which translate into lost of revenue.

Arrived in time at the D'nest Aviation Hangar. It was a private hanger. There are also a few private jets, which own by local tycoons ( ask me in personal, later kata defamation). Pictures of those jets are not allowed.

The weather is one of my main concern as bad weather means cancellation of the flight. However the control tower will decide on how bad is the weather

While having a pre-flight briefing, it drizzles. I fear for the worst. But the word from the control tower still is not out

Finally the flight is ready after a complete routine check. Some of the checks are, the fuel level, check if the flaps are operating perfectly. It seems smaller than I imagine. But this is the size of a two seater Cessna. Together with me in the flight is Capt.Bernand.

Was a bit nervous for the first time stepping into the aircraft. A certain procedure that I need to follow. Left leg to the support near the tyre, and right leg onto the cockpit. And I have to put on the headset before putting on the seat harness. It's a bit noisy once the engine is one. However, you hardly hear anything once the headset is on. You can only hear air traffic controller talking from the control tower and of course the person beside you talking through the mic.

Off we go to the taxing to the main runway.One thing that is unique about an aircraft is that on land, all the movement is controlled by foot. By using the heel and the toe. Both foot will be on the pedal. To Turn left, the left pedal will be pressed and same goes to the right. To break, press down the pedal using the heel. To start the engine also is a bit different than the car. As airplane have two spark plugs. Thus first have to switch on the first then the second one then both. This flexibility is a safety feature. In case one of the spark plug is not working especially on air, there are still another one to ensure the aircraft can continue to fly or at least make an emergency landing. From the image, also notice that there are some water splash due to the rain. There are no windscreen. The water will automatically blow to the side due to the speed of the aircraft.

The aircraft have two identical yoke (or the steering wheel in cars). It will move exactly the same as the other one. There are also a few things that always need to keep an eye one, like the speed, the altitude meter. There is also an instrument to guide the pilot to return to the airport in case of poor visibility. Notice the orange-ish display together with the knob. Each airport have its own code, which will act as a navigator for the pilot to return to the airport. Thus, trusting the instrument is also important in being a pilot.The red button at the yoke is NOT to fire missile. It is to communicate with the control tower.

"Falcon one requesting for take off on runway 33", everything goes wow from that moment on. However my heart sank a bit when our flight plan have changed towards Selangor/ Shah Alam side instead of the KL town side due to the bad weather in KL. While waiting to take off, we have to wait for this Firefly aircraft to take off first.

The take off is like no commercial airline take off. It was so smooth you are not taken a back to your seats. The speed during take off was about 70-80 km/h. This is when we are climbing around 2000 feet and still climbing to 5000.

Then the moment that I've been waiting for arrived. "You have control" said my co-pilot. "I have control" I replied.Travelling around 80-90 knots, or around 300 km/h it seems quite slow inside the cockpit. Until I see another aircraft which was quite fast. According to my co-pilot, thats approximately similar speed that we are travelling in. The yoke was quite sensitive, and I was advice to hold it gently like holding a baby. I was flying the aircraft, finally. This is what I wanted all this while ever since small. The feeling was amazing. Although its not long till we have to turn back, as we almost reach Kuala Selangor/ Teluk Intan area. I did the right hand turn onto the cloud and in no time

Shah Alam stadium.

"Falcon one, requesting for landing, runway 33, left turn" The landing again was amazing. Don't feel a thing. Was a smooth landing. Sadly that's the end of my adventure up in the air for the day.

 Thats it for the day. Thank you for flying with Air....

Was greeted by

Good job Capt.

almost 22

This is probably the last post that I am going to post at 21. In a few hours when the clock strike 12, and I turn 22. 21 is normally associated with "independent". Parents supposedly give the key to their children to go on live their life.But what does 22 mean?

Recapping back at 21, I earn a newer degree of "independent"  when I got my first car.The term "my" here refer to me as the owner of the car, legally. Why I say this? because on one incident that I recall, a so called casanova tried to impress a girl. He went to the girl house, call her out of the house asking the girl " hey do u wanna go for a ride in MY car?" It was a BMW. However the girl decline and in the end, it was not his car, it is his father's company car. Embarrassing ain't it?

However owning a car have it pros and cons, where you really have to tighten your belt, in my case. To accommodate extra expenses like fuel and toll when at the same time having a fixed allowance. And of course trying to get a job as soon as possible to serve the car loan. But on the bright side, you can go anywhere at anytime.

Owning a car also taught me a lesson.Just like the song " Forget you". As some might know the incident during beta year where a female class mate ask me out because she initially thought that I own a car. But after coming clean, she distance her self. This just shows how easy and shallow people can be and caught up in the material world. But for the record, I won't fetch her even then if I own a car or even now.

I count my blessing and really thankful for the car, which is also the blood and sweat of my parents.

Having the dinner at Tenji last night, to be perfectly honest and frank,it would not surprise me if thats probably the last time for my birthday celebration with everyone around. This is because after June, some might work in KL, some will be in Kulim, some in Penang, everyone will be scattered around having their own job and pursing the career. But thank you very much for the celebration.

With 6 months more to go, I am not sure where I will work and based on what that I will apply the job.Like for some already decided where they wanna work, let it be because to be near with the girlfriend, some already got offered a job, while there are also having superstar status where company will come look for them.

So all I hope is the year gets better and better as we might not know what is going to happen at every junction of this road we call life.